A man who tried to sue Motorcity Casino, in Detroit, MI, in order to claim back what he lost while playing jackblack and slot machines there over the space of 7 years has been told to get lost by a Michigan Court of Appeals.
Trying his luck, Italo Parise said the $673,854 in gambling losses he accrued from 2002 to 2009 were illegally taken from him due to an old statue law that wasn’t updated after voters in 1996 approved gaming at the casino.
However, the court confirmed Wayne County judge’s 2009 determination that MotorCity cannot be forced to pay him the money. Can’t blame the man for trying.
In a report by DetroitNews, appeals judges Amy Krause, Mark Cavanagh and Kathleen Jansen said: “We find no merit in the plaintiff’s arguments. Plaintiff does not contend that he was engaged in anything other than statutory-approved casino gaming while gambling at defendant’s casino, placing bets against the casino licensee in games approved by the Michigan Gaming Control Board.”
The 50-year-old statute named “gaming: action by loser” that Parise used as his excuse states that the casino workers had a duty by law to stop him when he was down and was showing no sign of scraping any winnings back. Parise claimed state law that may predate statehood in 1837 provided for the recovery of illegal gaming losses.
Nice try. But no. The appeals court judges added: “Subjecting defendant (MotorCity Casino) to liability for patrons’ gambling losses under (state law) would be plainly inconsistent with the legalization of casino gambling as provided for by Proposal E and the Michigan Gaming Review Revenue Act.”
Think of a world where we could claim back our losses after gambling all our belongings away. There’d be no casino’s in it, that’s for sure!
